I have 552 reasons to hate Facebook. I sure wish they would let me add more than 5,000 friends. If Google doesn’t have such a stupid limit that’ll get me to check it out, at minimum (I can’t add any more friends on Facebook).

A few months ago I interviewed the Jaiku founders. I found them to be very smart. This is a good purchase for Google. Add it onto their new social network that’s coming (Orkut 2.0) and Google just made a major move against Facebook.

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146 Replies to “Google: making big social media moves”

I use both Twitter and Jaiku. I wonder why Google didn’t buy Twitter, but I have a feeling it had to do with cost. Jaiku must have been a whole lot more affordable than Twitter. The infrastructure was all there, but Google didn’t have to pay for all the users that Twitter has.

I use both Twitter and Jaiku. I wonder why Google didn’t buy Twitter, but I have a feeling it had to do with cost. Jaiku must have been a whole lot more affordable than Twitter. The infrastructure was all there, but Google didn’t have to pay for all the users that Twitter has.

It scares me to think about all the things Google is involved in but at the same time gets me excited because everything they do is great and works well. I really do love the Google. Can’t wait to see what they do with Jaiku and see this new Facebook competitor.

It scares me to think about all the things Google is involved in but at the same time gets me excited because everything they do is great and works well. I really do love the Google. Can’t wait to see what they do with Jaiku and see this new Facebook competitor.

I’m writing this as Twitter goes down for the umpteenth time this week. if Google can make Jaiku stable and a touch more intuitive then it is right now, they may be able to beat Twitter. I’m on there, but haven’t really took up the task of migrating friends and so don’t use it yet. If services want me, there going to have to give me a good reason to go through such a daunting task.

I’m writing this as Twitter goes down for the umpteenth time this week. if Google can make Jaiku stable and a touch more intuitive then it is right now, they may be able to beat Twitter. I’m on there, but haven’t really took up the task of migrating friends and so don’t use it yet. If services want me, there going to have to give me a good reason to go through such a daunting task.

Don’t get me wrong, I love social media. I’m on Twitter all day. I have an Orkut account, a Facebook account, I’m on LinkedIn, etc.

That said, I now hate Facebook precisely because it allows someone to have 5,000 friends in the first place. Facebook was supposed to be the clean-cut alternative to MySpace, where I could check up on people I *really* know and access their cell phone numbers when I happened to be visiting the city they were living in this month. Now, I can’t even find their cell phone numbers under a barrage of animated plants and SuperWalls.

Clearly, others are enjoying themselves, and I’m not knocking that. I just want the old Facebook back, or someone with the passion to create a new site that goes viral like Facebook but doesn’t turn into nuFacebook. Plaxo is hardly an alternative.

Don’t get me wrong, I love social media. I’m on Twitter all day. I have an Orkut account, a Facebook account, I’m on LinkedIn, etc.

That said, I now hate Facebook precisely because it allows someone to have 5,000 friends in the first place. Facebook was supposed to be the clean-cut alternative to MySpace, where I could check up on people I *really* know and access their cell phone numbers when I happened to be visiting the city they were living in this month. Now, I can’t even find their cell phone numbers under a barrage of animated plants and SuperWalls.

Clearly, others are enjoying themselves, and I’m not knocking that. I just want the old Facebook back, or someone with the passion to create a new site that goes viral like Facebook but doesn’t turn into nuFacebook. Plaxo is hardly an alternative.

Being a Twitter user (not Jaiku) and a Google fan. I’m in a bit of a pickle here! Suddenly I feel compelled to open a Jaiku account… But I really don’t need it because I’m happy with Twitter and don’t have the time! Oh! The Web 2.0 social consumerism conundrum!

Being a Twitter user (not Jaiku) and a Google fan. I’m in a bit of a pickle here! Suddenly I feel compelled to open a Jaiku account… But I really don’t need it because I’m happy with Twitter and don’t have the time! Oh! The Web 2.0 social consumerism conundrum!

Wow, that is surprising that orkut gets the most page views. Its attractiveness is somewhere between MySpace and Facebook. However, in the USA it has very few users. I only have it because I know a few people in Brazil.

Wow, that is surprising that orkut gets the most page views. Its attractiveness is somewhere between MySpace and Facebook. However, in the USA it has very few users. I only have it because I know a few people in Brazil.

I wanted to add that I tried using Jaiku as my primary microblogging service, but ended up coming back to Twitter, even though I thought the Jaiku interface was nicer. I also did an in-depth comparison of both Jaiku and Twitter in a two-part post — see here and here. I really think Google’s decision had to do with cost more than anything else. True, Jaiku seems to be more reliable than Twitter, but it also doesn’t have the scale problems that Twitter has, with its many users.

I wanted to add that I tried using Jaiku as my primary microblogging service, but ended up coming back to Twitter, even though I thought the Jaiku interface was nicer. I also did an in-depth comparison of both Jaiku and Twitter in a two-part post — see here and here. I really think Google’s decision had to do with cost more than anything else. True, Jaiku seems to be more reliable than Twitter, but it also doesn’t have the scale problems that Twitter has, with its many users.

Why not twitter. How affordable does it have to be when you are flush with cash and have stock where Google’s is at. Google thinks it can be #1 at everything, but it’s a ton of work to unseat marketshare leaders who have the community.

I tried Facebook, but ran into dysfunctionalities, and I wrote it off as a college boy version of MySpace. Contrary to the FB frenzy, I have been very coldly uninterested in the platform.

But I followed you, Robert, to Twitter, then you mentioned Pownce and Jaiku, so I got on them too. I think it’s the speed of interactivity, the rapid replies you can get to a message, that’s so addictive.

To step into the rushing river of brevities, cool links, and what we had for lunch today, is a challenge for old conventional SloMo bloggers.

Too bad Twitter is dysfunctional and down so often. If they don’t fix their scaling problems fast, and provide better “in reply to” functionality, with Pownce-like file sharing, they’re going to fade away.

Socnet members love the community they’re participating in, but will migrate to another platform in a heartbeat if the functionalities are better and if the geek pundits give the Marching Orders to do so.

Good for Google. They really will take over the universe, what’s left of it.

Why not twitter. How affordable does it have to be when you are flush with cash and have stock where Google’s is at. Google thinks it can be #1 at everything, but it’s a ton of work to unseat marketshare leaders who have the community.

I tried Facebook, but ran into dysfunctionalities, and I wrote it off as a college boy version of MySpace. Contrary to the FB frenzy, I have been very coldly uninterested in the platform.

But I followed you, Robert, to Twitter, then you mentioned Pownce and Jaiku, so I got on them too. I think it’s the speed of interactivity, the rapid replies you can get to a message, that’s so addictive.

To step into the rushing river of brevities, cool links, and what we had for lunch today, is a challenge for old conventional SloMo bloggers.

Too bad Twitter is dysfunctional and down so often. If they don’t fix their scaling problems fast, and provide better “in reply to” functionality, with Pownce-like file sharing, they’re going to fade away.

Socnet members love the community they’re participating in, but will migrate to another platform in a heartbeat if the functionalities are better and if the geek pundits give the Marching Orders to do so.

Good for Google. They really will take over the universe, what’s left of it.

Jaiku gets great Google juice already. If you “marketing pundits” are not using Twitter, Jaiku, and Pownce to participate in conversations related to client business, sharing expertise, promoting links to client blogs/sites, and links to other relevant sites, you are antiques.

Post a link on Twitter, Jaiku, or Pownce, then after indexing catches it, Google the name of company linked to and watch how high it appears in SERPs. Like #1 or #3 in many cases.

Micro blogging is the new marketing power and marketable skill. Old Slow Motion Blogs can’t compete with the rapid idea and link dissemination, plus pure SEO power of these status updating tools.

Jaiku gets great Google juice already. If you “marketing pundits” are not using Twitter, Jaiku, and Pownce to participate in conversations related to client business, sharing expertise, promoting links to client blogs/sites, and links to other relevant sites, you are antiques.

Post a link on Twitter, Jaiku, or Pownce, then after indexing catches it, Google the name of company linked to and watch how high it appears in SERPs. Like #1 or #3 in many cases.

Micro blogging is the new marketing power and marketable skill. Old Slow Motion Blogs can’t compete with the rapid idea and link dissemination, plus pure SEO power of these status updating tools.

I was an early adopter of Orkut. It was fun for a while. Many of my friends were also on it, and the feature set was pretty decent. However, it never gained traction and I eventually deleted my account when I realized that all my friends were long gone and the only thing that was happening on Orkut was a tidal wave of spam (mostly not in English).

Clearly it’s gotten big traction outside the US. And tighter integration with Gmail could go a long way to pumping up the adoption curve here in the States. That may or may not be enough to overcome their late-mover disadvantage. We’ll see.

I was an early adopter of Orkut. It was fun for a while. Many of my friends were also on it, and the feature set was pretty decent. However, it never gained traction and I eventually deleted my account when I realized that all my friends were long gone and the only thing that was happening on Orkut was a tidal wave of spam (mostly not in English).

Clearly it’s gotten big traction outside the US. And tighter integration with Gmail could go a long way to pumping up the adoption curve here in the States. That may or may not be enough to overcome their late-mover disadvantage. We’ll see.

Twitter and Jaiku are not mutually exclusive. Jaiku is about “presence” of which Twitter is one. I myself have my Twitter RSS feed in my Jaiku feed… Now if Jaiku used the twitter API to feed back.. that would be something.

Twitter and Jaiku are not mutually exclusive. Jaiku is about “presence” of which Twitter is one. I myself have my Twitter RSS feed in my Jaiku feed… Now if Jaiku used the twitter API to feed back.. that would be something.

I’ve got a Jaiku account and think it’s a great service, but I’ve stuck with twitter, why because I like the way twitter is so simple and easy to use, I like the fact that it’s a platform for talking with friends, etc.

Also another reason I choose twitter over Jaiku is design, maybe it’s me but I think twitter’s design is much more pleasing on the eye.

It may also have something to do with the fact that most of my friends are on twitter.

But don’t let me ruin Jaiku’s day and I think a big congratulations is needed.

Having Google back you up is a good thing, and I’m guessing we’re going to be seeing interesting things coming from Jaiku over the next few months.

I’ve got a Jaiku account and think it’s a great service, but I’ve stuck with twitter, why because I like the way twitter is so simple and easy to use, I like the fact that it’s a platform for talking with friends, etc.

Also another reason I choose twitter over Jaiku is design, maybe it’s me but I think twitter’s design is much more pleasing on the eye.

It may also have something to do with the fact that most of my friends are on twitter.

But don’t let me ruin Jaiku’s day and I think a big congratulations is needed.

Having Google back you up is a good thing, and I’m guessing we’re going to be seeing interesting things coming from Jaiku over the next few months.

I’m a little confused. This was you a short while ago: “But, remember eBay? Remember how dozens of competitors tried to get into the eBay space? (and still are?)

Why aren’t they succeeding? Because eBay is NOT about the technology. It’s about the community and unless you have something that’ll convince the buyers and sellers all to switch all at one moment you’ll never be able to take eBay’s market away. Translation: it’s too late and eBay has huge defensibility around its business because people won’t move away from it even if you demonstrate 5x better technology.

Same with Facebook. I’m not moving away from it. Why? I have 5,000 reasons why (and another 500 already who want to be included in my Facebook network). Unless you can convince them all to move I’m not moving. This is why LinkedIn isn’t going to disappear anytime soon, even though I like Facebook’s approach a lot better. It’s also why MySpace isn’t going anywhere. My son says his friends are all on MySpace. My brother’s bar is on MySpace. They aren’t moving no matter how hard I evangelize Facebook.”

I’m a little confused. This was you a short while ago: “But, remember eBay? Remember how dozens of competitors tried to get into the eBay space? (and still are?)

Why aren’t they succeeding? Because eBay is NOT about the technology. It’s about the community and unless you have something that’ll convince the buyers and sellers all to switch all at one moment you’ll never be able to take eBay’s market away. Translation: it’s too late and eBay has huge defensibility around its business because people won’t move away from it even if you demonstrate 5x better technology.

Same with Facebook. I’m not moving away from it. Why? I have 5,000 reasons why (and another 500 already who want to be included in my Facebook network). Unless you can convince them all to move I’m not moving. This is why LinkedIn isn’t going to disappear anytime soon, even though I like Facebook’s approach a lot better. It’s also why MySpace isn’t going anywhere. My son says his friends are all on MySpace. My brother’s bar is on MySpace. They aren’t moving no matter how hard I evangelize Facebook.”

I’ve just spent a little time on Jaiku, but like Pownce it just lacks the simplicity of Twitter. I’m sure there’s ways to make a more feature-rich service while retaining a simple interface, but they’re not there yet.

If the interface isn’t really simple, it won’t be fast, which is essential to how I use Twitter. Of course, it’s also easier to display the service on a basic phone, but I guess those are going away soon w/ iPhone, gPhone, and who knows what else!

I’ve just spent a little time on Jaiku, but like Pownce it just lacks the simplicity of Twitter. I’m sure there’s ways to make a more feature-rich service while retaining a simple interface, but they’re not there yet.

If the interface isn’t really simple, it won’t be fast, which is essential to how I use Twitter. Of course, it’s also easier to display the service on a basic phone, but I guess those are going away soon w/ iPhone, gPhone, and who knows what else!

I started to use Jaiku, However, Its text phone number is Finnish which means international roaming charges here in the UK. Twitter used to use a Channel Islands number (Now Isle of Man number) which are ‘free’ on UK Orange texing plans.
Maybe Google didn’t buy Twitter after buying Blogger from Evan 🙂

I started to use Jaiku, However, Its text phone number is Finnish which means international roaming charges here in the UK. Twitter used to use a Channel Islands number (Now Isle of Man number) which are ‘free’ on UK Orange texing plans.
Maybe Google didn’t buy Twitter after buying Blogger from Evan 🙂

Isn’t the 5,000 friends limit there because Facebook was designed to graph your actual real world social relationships, not your online entourage (your real friends vs your virtual friends)? People aren’t able to have real relationships with more than about 200 people at a time anyway–5,000 is being generous. If you are a business or org you’re supposed to start a group … or join MySpace 😉

Isn’t the 5,000 friends limit there because Facebook was designed to graph your actual real world social relationships, not your online entourage (your real friends vs your virtual friends)? People aren’t able to have real relationships with more than about 200 people at a time anyway–5,000 is being generous. If you are a business or org you’re supposed to start a group … or join MySpace 😉

Google is not competition for FB. Google cannot do everything. I got news for you. There is no FB killer. It doesn’t matter what Google has or can do. Its about community and Google does not have this in terms of Socnet. Google will always be known for search and FB will be known for socnet.

Google is not competition for FB. Google cannot do everything. I got news for you. There is no FB killer. It doesn’t matter what Google has or can do. Its about community and Google does not have this in terms of Socnet. Google will always be known for search and FB will be known for socnet.

Bill: no. The engineers at Facebook tell me the limit is there because Facebook doesn’t scale when you get thousands of friends. It has nothing to do with some evil plan to get you to only add your “real” friends, whatever those are.

Bill: no. The engineers at Facebook tell me the limit is there because Facebook doesn’t scale when you get thousands of friends. It has nothing to do with some evil plan to get you to only add your “real” friends, whatever those are.

Bill Streeter: you are particularly clueless about how important Facebook and other social networking tools are in replacing my contact list. I have collected more than 4,000 business cards in the past six years. Buzz Bruggeman, CEO of Activewords, has 12,000 people he KNOWS in his Outlook Contact list.

Who are YOU to tell me that I can only possibly know 200 people? That’s bullshit.

Bill Streeter: you are particularly clueless about how important Facebook and other social networking tools are in replacing my contact list. I have collected more than 4,000 business cards in the past six years. Buzz Bruggeman, CEO of Activewords, has 12,000 people he KNOWS in his Outlook Contact list.

Who are YOU to tell me that I can only possibly know 200 people? That’s bullshit.

@Gordon R. Vaughan – No worries. Simply configure your Jaiku page to receive feeds from Twitter. Then all your Twitter messages will automatically become Jaiku messages, too. That should help SEO a lot.

@Gordon R. Vaughan – No worries. Simply configure your Jaiku page to receive feeds from Twitter. Then all your Twitter messages will automatically become Jaiku messages, too. That should help SEO a lot.

I wonder if the Google acquisition is about the Social network of Jaiku or maybe building an active contact list for the rumored Gphone? The Symbian s60 client shows the presence of your contacts. All Jaiku needs to beat Twitter is a US SMS number and a private message option.

I wonder if the Google acquisition is about the Social network of Jaiku or maybe building an active contact list for the rumored Gphone? The Symbian s60 client shows the presence of your contacts. All Jaiku needs to beat Twitter is a US SMS number and a private message option.

Number one I didn’t suggest that it was an “evil” plan to get you to add your real friends–I was referring to the actual point of Facebook, to map your real social graph. People you actually have relationships with.

And I didn’t say that you can’t KNOW more than 5,000 people–if you define “know” as “aware of.” My point was about relationships, I seriously doubt that you or anyone else can have a real personal relationship with that many people.

And yes Facebook is a great Rolodex, but thats not it’s intended primary function. I seriously doubt that they are worried about losing a ton of users because of the 5,000 contact limit. There aren’t that many people who really need to go beyond that–or even come close to it. You are a special case, maybe sometimes you forget that you’re not even close to the typical user. I suspect most people are more like myself who use Facebook to track about 200 of my friends and use an actual address book app to keep contacts on everyone else.

Number one I didn’t suggest that it was an “evil” plan to get you to add your real friends–I was referring to the actual point of Facebook, to map your real social graph. People you actually have relationships with.

And I didn’t say that you can’t KNOW more than 5,000 people–if you define “know” as “aware of.” My point was about relationships, I seriously doubt that you or anyone else can have a real personal relationship with that many people.

And yes Facebook is a great Rolodex, but thats not it’s intended primary function. I seriously doubt that they are worried about losing a ton of users because of the 5,000 contact limit. There aren’t that many people who really need to go beyond that–or even come close to it. You are a special case, maybe sometimes you forget that you’re not even close to the typical user. I suspect most people are more like myself who use Facebook to track about 200 of my friends and use an actual address book app to keep contacts on everyone else.

Yepp, Google is making a move further into the Social Networking arena. Orkut would be the natural starting point of course.

However, I still miss a wider approach from Google. Opening up the platform with APIs is one – yes. But if they intend to take a bite of the Social Graph opportunity I am susprised they do not have a richer solution for your contacts list than they have today.

Yepp, Google is making a move further into the Social Networking arena. Orkut would be the natural starting point of course.

However, I still miss a wider approach from Google. Opening up the platform with APIs is one – yes. But if they intend to take a bite of the Social Graph opportunity I am susprised they do not have a richer solution for your contacts list than they have today.

I like the fact that Facebook puts a limit on the total # of friends I can have – does anyone really have 5000 friends? What is the true definition of a friend when the total # adds up to 5000?

I define a friend in Facebook as the people that I interact with and want to remain in touch with on a regular basis – I think it would be nearly impossible to do that with a huge number of friends and would defeat the purpose of my facebook profile. I like using Facebook as a means to connect in an implicit/passive manner – but I don’t want to do this with 5000 people.

I like the fact that Facebook puts a limit on the total # of friends I can have – does anyone really have 5000 friends? What is the true definition of a friend when the total # adds up to 5000?

I define a friend in Facebook as the people that I interact with and want to remain in touch with on a regular basis – I think it would be nearly impossible to do that with a huge number of friends and would defeat the purpose of my facebook profile. I like using Facebook as a means to connect in an implicit/passive manner – but I don’t want to do this with 5000 people.

A bite of reality “If anyone really has 5000 friends they would not be sitting in from of a machine all day”! 365 days in a year/5000 “so called” friends…., think about it.

Anyone can make 50,000 online friends if they want to waste their time doing that and it makes them feel good, but we all know the true meaning of a friend so I should not have to explain it.

As for the Oct 10th post and I quote “Were Twitter’s technical problems too extensive for Google to swallow when they went shopping for a microblog service?”, use your head!!! I seriously doubt such a thought would enter Google exec’s minds, its a business decision, if Google would so desire they would certainly be able to sort out Twitter’s tech problems, its a money thing if you get my drift?

Last point before I get replies of (blind, tunnel vision & blatantly unintelligent) criticism (I’m Australian so don’t waste time pointing out spelling errors, I only spell American when coding sites…., because I have to!!!!). Orknut is big in Brazil but not in the U.S., big shock coming your way, it will be big in the U.S. Like it or not the huge majority of users on networking sites are not what most would consider I.T. literate (for example they are not the type that would read or even find this site interesting like we all have). They will jump on the bandwagon and follow the rest of the sheep, you may doubt me but do not underestimate the power of Google’s marketing strategy. They have some very smart people in the marketing & PR departments that know only too well how to prey on gullible people (gullible being a natural trait of all human beings).

By the way, I am not a fan of Google but I am a realist, I use Google search engine because it is the best around and when I need to find information quickly I would be made not to use it, whether I like it or not!

Thank you for listening and please feel free to vote for me should I decide to become only the second foreign born president of the USA behind Arnie (see I do have a sense of humour)!

A bite of reality “If anyone really has 5000 friends they would not be sitting in from of a machine all day”! 365 days in a year/5000 “so called” friends…., think about it.

Anyone can make 50,000 online friends if they want to waste their time doing that and it makes them feel good, but we all know the true meaning of a friend so I should not have to explain it.

As for the Oct 10th post and I quote “Were Twitter’s technical problems too extensive for Google to swallow when they went shopping for a microblog service?”, use your head!!! I seriously doubt such a thought would enter Google exec’s minds, its a business decision, if Google would so desire they would certainly be able to sort out Twitter’s tech problems, its a money thing if you get my drift?

Last point before I get replies of (blind, tunnel vision & blatantly unintelligent) criticism (I’m Australian so don’t waste time pointing out spelling errors, I only spell American when coding sites…., because I have to!!!!). Orknut is big in Brazil but not in the U.S., big shock coming your way, it will be big in the U.S. Like it or not the huge majority of users on networking sites are not what most would consider I.T. literate (for example they are not the type that would read or even find this site interesting like we all have). They will jump on the bandwagon and follow the rest of the sheep, you may doubt me but do not underestimate the power of Google’s marketing strategy. They have some very smart people in the marketing & PR departments that know only too well how to prey on gullible people (gullible being a natural trait of all human beings).

By the way, I am not a fan of Google but I am a realist, I use Google search engine because it is the best around and when I need to find information quickly I would be made not to use it, whether I like it or not!

Thank you for listening and please feel free to vote for me should I decide to become only the second foreign born president of the USA behind Arnie (see I do have a sense of humour)!

Ok…., second last paragraph, last sentence should be “mad not to use it”. Its the whisky starting to kick in and before any comments on that I’m based in London (yes I’m still an Aussie) which means its 1.20am and not early evening like you have at the mo……, sorry……, the whisky again, better go before all credibility has gone….. again….. if it hasn’t already…..

Ok…., second last paragraph, last sentence should be “mad not to use it”. Its the whisky starting to kick in and before any comments on that I’m based in London (yes I’m still an Aussie) which means its 1.20am and not early evening like you have at the mo……, sorry……, the whisky again, better go before all credibility has gone….. again….. if it hasn’t already…..